5 Ways Young Travelers Are Using Tinder - That Aren't To Get Laid

As #wanderlust becomes more of a generation-wide obsession and Tinder becomes more popular amongst normal, not-a-horny-fratstar actual humans, users have started to put two and two together and use the location-based app as their own millennial travel tool. Here are some of the ways Tinderers are making it a not-so-Lonely Planet:

1. Making airport layovers suck just a little bit less.

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If you’ve got 3 or more hours to kill in some random airport like Dallas or, God forbid, Tulsa, why not make the process a little bit more fun by having yourself a quick layover date? Apparently, that exact concept is becoming a real thing. And it makes sense - a foodcourt date fills the time, and it’s not like anyone had anything better to do anyway. At best you breeze through your layover having a blast with someone awesome and at worst you plead “flight boarding” and go back to you default standby of an two People Magazines and 4lbs of Gardetto’s Snack Mix. Either way, it’s a win.

2. Finding people to go out with when traveling with family.

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Family vacations are awesome but most parents are probably not up for a hot night at the discoteque after a long day at the Louvre. If you’re not staying at a hostel it can be hard to meet other young people abroad without intros. Enter Tinder. “Tinder is totally different when you’re abroad,” says Brie Pheiffer, a happily-in-an-exclusive-relationship 27 year old who used the app on a recent trip to China. “Back home it’s just all about hooking up, but when you’re in another country, you find tons of people who are just looking to hang out with people.” Which isn’t to say that you can’t absolutely still find the hookups - it is a dating app after all - but the options for platonic get-togethers are also more commonplace.

3. Finding someone - anyone - else who speaks the same language.

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As anyone who’s lived in a foreign country can attest to, speaking a second language for a sustained period of time is fucking exhausting. People who are in foreign countries for extended periods of time (students studying abroad, TEFL teachers, etc.) have started to use Tinder to find and meet up with other ex-patriots. Micheal Strong, an American student doing a semester abroad in Lyon, France says he uses Tinder to find dates “that I can actually talk to without struggling with every sentence and sounding like an idiot. Or at least, no more than usual.” Tinder helps him meet women from outside of his program that he can actually talk to. When asked whether he’s ever used the app to meet people just as friends he laughs. “Not by choice. There have been a couple of miscommunications...even without the language barrier. But yeah, I know plenty of people who do that. It’s a smaller world out here, socially. You do what you can.”

4. Meeting locals.

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It’s just as easy - if not much easier - to use Tinder to find people who live in the area you’re exploring as it is to find expats. Making local connections is a huge advantage when you’re visiting an area for the first time and don’t know the good places to explore/eat/go out. Many young travelers are logging into Tinder as a way to source a sort local party guide (and maybe do a little flirting while they’re at it.) It’s a lighthearted way to make local connections and generally makes for a much more interesting day or night out than a visit to the standard tourist traps.

5. Getting a feel for the local talent before going out.

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Michael had such a good experience using Tinder in Lyon, he convinced several of his female friends to make accounts as well. He says those girls used the app on a recent trip to Spain to gauge whether “the guys in that city were worth heels.” (Ed note: The answer to this question is ALWAYS no.) According to Michael, a couple of minutes of swiping through profiles is generally enough to get a pretty good sense for what the dating demographic of a town is going to be like, so when he and his friends are trying to make a decision about going out vs. staying in, or how to act and dress, they often spend a few minutes consulting Tinder.

Used right, Tinder can be a useful tool for young travelers, whether they're looking for friends, fellow countrymen, or just a way to waste time. If the expectations are set in advance and both party's desires are clear, the world is your oyster. All that said, if you just wanna find someone and get your freak on, you can totally still do that too.